Judge Plans To Drop TMZ Parent From Terrell Owens' TM Suit

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois state judge said Thursday that he intends to dismiss the Fox subsidiary behind TMZ from a trademark infringement lawsuit brought by ex-NFL star Terrell Owens, which accused the outlet of exploiting his famed catchphrase "Getcha Popcorn Ready" as a tagline in its football-related coverage to evoke anticipation, increase advertising revenues and generate web traffic.

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SpaceXAI's Grok Sued For Breaking Ill. Law With Face Scans

By Allison Grande

The Grok chatbot operated by Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company is illegally collecting and storing the biometric data of users who upload photos of their faces to generate edited images, according to a proposed class action filed in Illinois federal court.

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Lawmakers Push For Protections In $10M Spirit Data Sale

By Kelcey Caulder

More than 120 mostly Democratic lawmakers raised concerns Thursday about the proposed $10 million sale of Spirit Airlines' internal data to Google for artificial intelligence training, saying the sale would involve an "extraordinary volume" of internal records containing individuals' sensitive information.

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Tyson, Pork Buyers Get Final OK For $48M Pork Price-Fix Deal

By Rae Ann Varona

A Minnesota federal judge gave the final stamp of approval to a $48 million settlement Tyson reached with a class of commercial and institutional indirect pork purchasers that resolves antitrust claims over allegedly inflated pork prices, and granted class counsel nearly $16 million in attorney fees from the fund.

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Boeing Plaintiffs Seek Board, Exec Records In Door-Plug Suit

By Ben Adlin

Passengers suing The Boeing Co. over the 2024 blowout of an aircraft door panel urged a Washington state judge to force the aerospace giant to hand over documents that allegedly tie the incident to decisions made at the company's former headquarters in Illinois.

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7th Circ. Backs Ex-Chicago Atty's Tax Fraud Conviction

By Asha Glover

The Seventh Circuit affirmed a man's two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for tax fraud, witness tampering and contempt Thursday, rejecting his argument that the government didn't present sufficient evidence to prove that he was guilty of filing false corporate and individual income tax returns.

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Mayne, Ascend Cut $1M Generic Price-Fixing Deal With States

By Gina Kim

Ascend Laboratories, Mayne Pharma and Citron Pharma asked a Connecticut federal judge Thursday to sign off on a settlement with a coalition of states resolving claims the companies were involved in an illegal conspiracy to fix prices and suppress competition for generic drugs in the United States. 

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Fed. Circ. Presses Inventor On SAWS Bias Challenge

By Celeste Bott

Federal Circuit judges appeared skeptical of an inventor's argument that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's controversial and now discontinued "sensitive" patent applications program derailed his application for a patent on a type of internal combustion engine in violation of his constitutional rights.

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Taro Pharma Says MDL Deal Bars States' Duplicative Claims

By Lauren Berg

Taro Pharmaceuticals USA asked a Connecticut federal judge to toss generic-drug price-fixing claims brought by a coalition of states on behalf of consumers that are duplicative of claims the consumers have already resolved through settlements in separate multidistrict litigation.

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Hotel Guest Argues Info Exchange Fight Fits Digital Era

By Lauraann Wood

The give-to-get nature of a software service allowing luxury hotels to access competitors' occupancy data only upon contributing their own should be enough to plausibly outline an age-old illegal information exchange in the more modern digital era, a hotel guest told the Seventh Circuit.

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Opinion

Illinois Should Vacate Convictions Tainted By Racist Counsel

After the Illinois Supreme Court’s recent suspension of a public defender’s law license over racist online threats, prosecutors should move to vacate the convictions of every Black client he represented, as an attorney’s racial animus is a serious conflict of interest akin to structural error, says Adam Murphy at Fordham Law.

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Series

Mentalism Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Convincing strangers I can read their minds may seem like an unusual second career for a legal practitioner, but both disciplines share several important requirements, including trust and preparation, says Warren Biro at Manatt.

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Sheppard Mullin Hit With Class Action Over Data Breach

By Jake Maher

A former Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP paralegal launched a proposed class action against the firm in California federal court on Wednesday over a cyberattack it had in August, in which she says at least 1,000 people's names and Social Security numbers were stolen.

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IP Rights Group Urges Against Litigation Funding Disclosure

By Elliot Weld

An inventor rights advocacy group has told a federal courts rules committee that requiring the disclosure of who is funding civil litigation would put independent inventors at a disadvantage when trying to enforce patents against a larger company.

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Analysis

New Fraud Division Flexes Might In Latest Enforcement Policy

By Phillip Bantz

The National Fraud Enforcement Division's new corporate enforcement policy emphasizes the quick pursuit of certain types of fraud through data analysis and staff resources, expands the target list beyond traditional healthcare providers and highlights the division's growing dominance within the U.S. Department of Justice, experts say.

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Cornell Defendant Seeks To Nix James As Special Prosecutor

By Andrea Keckley

One of the seven men accused of drugging and raping a fellow Cornell University student at a fraternity home has asked a New York state court to void Gov. Kathy Hochul's appointment of New York Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the case.

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Gov't Attys Could Face Sanctions Over AI Use Omissions

By Madeline Lyskawa

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge has ordered four government attorneys to explain why they shouldn't be sanctioned for making factual misrepresentations about the U.S. Army's use of artificial intelligence to evaluate contract proposals.

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Split Congress Could Spur Competing Probes, Cleary Finds

By Courtney Bublé

If the new year brings an era of divided Congress, then "dueling investigations" into the same topics should be expected, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP said in a report it released Thursday.

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Fla. Judge Says Oct. 7 Attack Was 'Inflection Point' For U.S.

By David Minsky

U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman addressed a small group of attorneys in a Florida law office to speak on his book about the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, saying public debate over facts surrounding the event and underlying feud has reached an "inflection point" in America.

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Buzbee Faces $970K Fee Bid In Dismissed Conspiracy Cases

By Lynn LaRowe

A Mississippi lawyer is asking a Texas state court to award her more than $970,000 in fees after defeating claims that she and her law firm conspired with rapper Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP to retaliate against prominent Houston plaintiffs attorney Tony Buzbee and two of his former clients.

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Dems Says GOP Broke Senate Rules In Jack Smith Hearing

By Courtney Bublé

The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have accused Republicans of violating committee rules during a hearing last week with former special counsel Jack Smith.

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